Rodale Institute is an American 501 nonprofit that supports research into organic farming.Rodale Institute was founded in 1947 by J.I. Rodale in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. When J.I. Rodale died in 1971, his son Robert purchased 333 acres and moved the farm to its current site in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Wikipedia.

In the introduction, University of Washington geologist David R. Montgomery writes that he never thought he'd write an optimistic book about the environment. Montgomery's first popular book, "Dirt," was about how erosion undermined ancient civilizations around the world in places like modern-day Syria and Iraq.
Yet his new book, "Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life," is a good-news environment story. Available May 9 from W.W. Norton, it comes almost exactly a decade after the book that propelled Montgomery to pop-science stardom. During the years since, he has won a MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a 'Genius Award,' and published several books for general audiences.
The success of "Dirt" also brought invitations to speak at farming conferences. Along the way, Montgomery met farmers who talked about successes in restoring health to degraded soils.
"I kept running into examples of farmers who had restored fertility to degraded land," said Montgomery, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences. "So I started asking, what did you do? How long did it take? I began to recognize patterns among farmers who had been successful not just in restoring soil, but in restoring profits to their farms."
At one event he shared the stage with Howard G. Buffett, Warren Buffett's farmer-philanthropist son, who stressed the importance of restoring health to U.S. soils. American soils are currently estimated to have lost about half their pre-agricultural organic matter -- a key ingredient in fertile soil.
"What really impressed me was how he presented examples of real farmers who had restored fertility to their soil, showing the potential for what he called a 'Brown Revolution,'" Montgomery said. After that encounter, Montgomery set out to visit farmers around the world who were restoring their soil.
The new book weaves a travelogue with history and science to tell of visits to farms in North and South Dakota, site of the famous Dust Bowl, as well as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Africa and Costa Rica. These farmers use technology ranging from hand-powered machetes to enormous modern no-till seeding machines. Seeing approaches that worked in very different situations, Montgomery sought out the common ground for building fertile soil as a consequence of farming.
These farmers had all moved away from tilling their fields, which chops up worms, erodes soil and disrupts beneficial microbes. Instead they focused on boosting soil health, thereby bolstering a crop's natural defenses.
"It boils down to a combination of three factors: Park the plow to minimize soil disturbance; grow cover crops, including legumes to get nitrogen and carbon into the soil; and grow a diversity of crops, so that you can break up the pest and pathogen carryover problem," Montgomery said. "Those three principles -- ditch the plow, cover up, grow diversity -- were common among the farmers that had restored degraded soils and returned profitability to their farms."
He intentionally did not seek out "alternative" or "environmental" practices. Except for the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania, the farms he visited were not certified organic. Most farmers were strongly motivated by economic worries and the skyrocketing costs of herbicides, pesticides and diesel. By nurturing healthier soils that can retain water, suppress pests and don't require as much fertilizer, pesticides or work of diesel-powered machines, they reduced their costly inputs by at least 50 percent and up to 90 percent.
Beyond the economic payoff for farmers, adopting these practices also produces environmental benefits by reducing chemical use and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere to help counter climate change, Montgomery says.
"I think there's a big opportunity to make conventional agriculture more 'organic-ish' by adopting this suite of practices," Montgomery said. "By moving away from high-disturbance, high-input agriculture you can reap many of the benefits of soil health without necessarily going fully organic."
Montgomery's most recent book, "The Hidden Half of Nature," co-written with his wife, Anne Biklé, looked at the power of microbes in the soil and in human health. That book told the story of how Biklé nurtured microbial life to restore the soil in their home's yard, seeing results more quickly than they had imagined was possible.
"This new book was my attempt to ask the question: Can soil be restored at scale? On real farms, not in some little yard in Seattle. Could it be done on real, commercial farms in the developed world, as well as on subsistence farms in the developing world?" His answer is a strong argument for yes.
For more information, contact Montgomery at 206-685-2560 or bigdirt@uw.edu.

The Critical Role of Organics in U.S. Agriculture at the Organic & Non-GMO Forum
Moyer, executive director at Rodale Institute, along with other sought-after industry experts, will examine the complexities of developing an organic or non-GMO supply chain at this second annual event, November 14-15 at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis.
Minneapolis, MN, October 30, 2016 --(
Moyer has been helping farmers transition from conventional farming to organic methods for nearly a lifetime with his work at Rodale Institute, which is committed to groundbreaking research in organic agriculture, advocating for policies that support farmers, and educating people about organic options. In 2015, he was appointed executive director at the Institute.
Moyer is a past chair of the National Organic Standards Board, a founding board member of Pennsylvania Certified Organic, and serves on various other boards. He also is the author of “Organic No-Till Farming,” a publication that has become a global resource.
Broadening the discussion to supply chain challenges, speaker Kellee James, CEO of Mercaris, a market data service and trading platform for organic, non-GMO and other IP agricultural commodities, will present “Global Supply and Demand Trade Flows in Organic & Non-GMO Ingredients.” She will provide a snapshot of organic and non-GMO demand, highlighting the gaps in the trade flow along the way, and presenting an outlook for solutions to satisfy this demand.
Speaker Ben Allen of Trimble will add depth to the conversation about the supply chain during his presentation “Creating Solutions for Traceability Along the Supply Chain” on opening day of the conference. At Trimble, a leading provider of advanced location-based solutions such as GPS, laser and optical technologies, Allen is enterprise solutions lead for agriculture. His session will explore the importance of traceability along the supply chain and introduce some of the novel tools to accomplish this.
Learn more at www.ongforum.com and claim a 15% discount on registration with the code: RELEASE. Also visit Oilseed & Grain Trade Summit, the event that is co-located with the Forum.
Host of the event, HighQuest Group, based in Danvers, Mass., is a strategic advisory, conference and media company serving corporations, financial investors and governments across the global food and agribusiness value chains. www.highquestgroup.com Minneapolis, MN, October 30, 2016 --( PR.com )-- Jeff Moyer, keynote speaker at next month’s Organic & Non-GMO Forum, will draw upon his four decades of experience with organic farming to explore how it has changed the world, and now through science, points the way to a regenerative future. Moyer, executive director at Rodale Institute, along with other sought-after industry experts, will examine the complexities of developing an organic or non-GMO supply chain at this second annual event, November 14-15 at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis.Moyer has been helping farmers transition from conventional farming to organic methods for nearly a lifetime with his work at Rodale Institute, which is committed to groundbreaking research in organic agriculture, advocating for policies that support farmers, and educating people about organic options. In 2015, he was appointed executive director at the Institute.Moyer is a past chair of the National Organic Standards Board, a founding board member of Pennsylvania Certified Organic, and serves on various other boards. He also is the author of “Organic No-Till Farming,” a publication that has become a global resource.Broadening the discussion to supply chain challenges, speaker Kellee James, CEO of Mercaris, a market data service and trading platform for organic, non-GMO and other IP agricultural commodities, will present “Global Supply and Demand Trade Flows in Organic & Non-GMO Ingredients.” She will provide a snapshot of organic and non-GMO demand, highlighting the gaps in the trade flow along the way, and presenting an outlook for solutions to satisfy this demand.Speaker Ben Allen of Trimble will add depth to the conversation about the supply chain during his presentation “Creating Solutions for Traceability Along the Supply Chain” on opening day of the conference. At Trimble, a leading provider of advanced location-based solutions such as GPS, laser and optical technologies, Allen is enterprise solutions lead for agriculture. His session will explore the importance of traceability along the supply chain and introduce some of the novel tools to accomplish this.Learn more at www.ongforum.com and claim a 15% discount on registration with the code: RELEASE. Also visit Oilseed & Grain Trade Summit, the event that is co-located with the Forum.Host of the event, HighQuest Group, based in Danvers, Mass., is a strategic advisory, conference and media company serving corporations, financial investors and governments across the global food and agribusiness value chains. www.highquestgroup.com